"A book about Rav Yaakov Edelstein ztz"l, and the tzaddik he was, but it’s also about how we can improve our life according to his legacy"
Book: Reaching to Heaven
Authors: Sivan Rahav Meir and Yedidya Meir
Publisher: ArtScroll
Rabbi Yaakov Edelstein ztz”l was niftar. Rav Edelstein had been the rav of Ramat Hasharon since 1950, a dayan on Rav Nissim Karelitz’s beis din, and was the brother of Rav Gershon Edelstein of Ponevezh shlita. He was known as a baal mofet whose door was open to all those who needed yeshuot, and was respected and loved by all the residents of Ramat Hasharon, an upper-class city in central Israel.
My husband and I found ourselves unable to leave the shivah house. We came for a brief visit, and as we sat there, every moment brought more visitors from a diverse cross section of Israeli society. People streamed in to comfort the family, bringing the most fascinating stories. We sat there, recording and writing, and we soon understood we had a treasure.
was to make a book about such a tzaddik accessible and applicable to the public. Reaching to Heaven is a book about Rav Edelstein and the tzaddik he was, but it’s also about how we can improve our life according to his legacy. Taking someone who is a Torah giant and bringing the takeaway down to earth was hard.
We interviewed over 100 people to compile these memories of the Rav. Sometimes, we were able to copy and paste from the interviews. But some spoke about his miracles and segulot. We decided not to include all the mystical stuff, because we wanted the book to be tachlit, to be relevant to climbing our own ladders.
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